


Firedreams

by dreamyafterdark



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Hallucinations, Kylux - Freeform, Kylux Summer Fest, Kylux Summer Fest 2019, M/M, Mild Horror, Poisoning, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 16:38:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20450240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamyafterdark/pseuds/dreamyafterdark
Summary: On some planet, on some summer night, Kylo is trying to get... back... to somewhere. Bitten by a snake, he has to wait out the poison, as it creates hallucinations around him. But why is every mirage a memory of Hux?





	Firedreams

That moment.  
That split second before. 

Kylo’s eyes and the snake’s eyes met, and a flicker of something, some kind of understanding, some kind of respect, before the bite.  
The raven-haired swerved, held onto a tree branch. He knew the type of poison, he knew it wouldn’t last, he knew there was no antidote. 

Night-vision.  
Hallucinations.  
Dizziness.

Kylo bit his lip and started walking again. 

Small, fallen branches crackling under his boots as he walked through the dark woods, strangely lit up for his eyes as if ever burning fires were illuminating his path.  
It wasn’t a set path. Kylo was following neither a map, nor his memory. If anything, he was following a star, or rather, trying to find the spot where a constellation looked the same way that he last remembered. 

It wouldn’t be the same place. Time had passed. How much exactly, Kylo did not know. But it would be close, he thought.  
He hoped.

“Ren! We can’t cover you at this distance.”

To his right a holofeed flickered on a set of monitors that had no beginning or end. General Hux’s bluish form stood proud and irritated, his voice clearly enunciated even over the crackling distortion. 

Kylo wiped feverish sweat from his forehead. The sky above him looked dark red. And the stars… were different. They didn’t belong to this place. They belonged to this scene…  
“Return to the fleet immediately!”, the blue Hux called out.

“I’m trying…”, Kylo exhaled.

He turned to walk on, but from the corner of his eye he noticed, that the scene was still there. The Hux was still on the monitors, but he stood silently. Kylo frowned. Somehow he had expected… what had he expected? This was a hallucination. He’d had a few of these already, although this was the first with sound. They were based on real memories, but what did he think would happen now that it had run?

It should disappear. It didn’t.  
It could have run again – a loop, like a malfunctioning device, or a piece of art. But this was neither.  
It shouldn’t have stopped. There should have been more, especially dreamlike nonsense. But there was nothing. The Hux looked at him silently, his eyes deep and meaningful, almost sad… Kylo stretched out a hand towards his face, let it run clear through the holofeed.

“What do you want?”

“Turn back.”, the Hux said softly.

Kylo took a slow breath. Around him, the woods were changing, falling away.

“You have to leave here.”

The atmosphere changed… Kylo felt the structure of his tie-fighter begin to envelop him–

“Ren. You have to go...”

Using all his strength, Kylo pulled himself away from the mirage, growled, started walking, ignored the invisible Force arms that stretched out treacherously trying to contain him.

“Good boy…”

Kylo winced. That was not a memory, and yet it echoed in his mind just like it had really happened once. Perhaps it hadn’t come to pass yet? Perhaps the past and the future were blending into one and another… Or perhaps it was a past he never chose, a future that now could not be… The miserable weight that pushed down on Kylo’s chest at this thought surprised the raven-haired somewhat. Did he have feelings for the General? It occurred to him that every one of the hallucinations he’d seen so far had been of him.  
Images of Hux standing on the Bridge, hands clasped behind his back. Walking with that perfect posture. Even that strange smile Hux made, somewhere between a sneer, and a smirk, and something altogether different, something… vulnerable…

“Careful Ren.”

Kylo blinked. A Hux was standing right before him, blocking his path.

“That your personal interests not interfere with orders from Leader Snoke.”, Hux continued with delighted contempt.  
“I want to get out of here. For your sake, I suggest you let me pass.”, Ren softly growled.

In his memory, he had spoken far more harshly. And he had walked off, never looking back to see what Hux’s expression might have been. Now he stood in front of the General and watched him fluster. But suddenly, his green-blue eyes shot up and looked directly into Kylo’s. Filled with… fear?

“Run…”, Hux whispered.

Kylo frowned, but as he looked away from Hux, he noticed he was lying on the ground, and vines had appeared from the trees, grabbing him, wrapping him up. Kylo had to use his saber to fight them off, and he could have sworn he heard them screech and scream as he cut them off of himself. Clambering to his feet, Kylo ran off as fast as he could, kept running, and the next few visions he saw, he clean outran. This was all too much. Hallucinations were one thing, but there was something else going, so evil Force magic. Something or someone on this planet was trying to keep him from returning. And that meant he had to get back not just for his sake…

Back…  
Where was he actually getting back to?  
And who?

“Fire at will…”

Kylo stumbled, felt his legs give way under him, struggled to raise himself onto all fours.  
A smiling General Hux in a dark coat was giving orders, captured members of the Resistance looking on, and hundreds of stormtroopers. And again, the Hux turned and looked straight at Kylo with his green-blue eyes that were way too intense for a dream or a memory.

Something was pulling at Kylo, he could tell without being told, but all he could do to get away was crawl. His limbs, his whole body felt like it was weighed down with lead. Close to the ground, he crawled past the mirage, the Hux’s head and eyes following him as he went.

“Any… words of advice… General?”, Kylo brought out with much effort.  
“I loved you, Ren.”

Kylo’s arms and legs dropped and he hit the ground. One breath. Two breaths. 

“I know…”, he whispered.

He had always known.

As he raised himself back onto all fours and crawled along, it gradually got easier. But Kylo’s mind was reeling. How long had he known, and buried, and perhaps even exploited, the General’s feelings for him? That place he was going back to, it was a camp wasn’t it?... It was a camp with General Hux,… and a battalion of troopers…. half of which had gone on an expedition… and didn’t return,… prompting Kylo to go after them… leaving Hux behind with the rest…  
There was still a good chunk of his memories missing, but Kylo slowly started to get his bearings, both mentally and psychically. He was able to get up and walk upright again, and as he pushed through a bunch of low hanging branches, he got to a clearing.

*The* clearing.

The sky above, dark purple rather than red now, showed similar stars to what Kylo remembered when he first set off. Or, indeed, it showed two sets of stars. One as it was then, one as it was now. Kylo could calculate that he’d been absent for roughly four hours, but what was useful in the sky was more disconcerting on the ground.

As Kylo looked back down, he saw two sets of realities, overlaying each other. They didn’t look like the mirages along the way. Those had been contained in size – their canvasses may have extended into the web of the dark night, but you could walk past and around them. To connect to them meant diving in, and getting lost. The Hux inside him had warned him of this. It was very different here.

Here, he *was* inside the scene. As Kylo walked into the camp, it was as if everyone was splitting into doubles. Some only turning to the other side in their sleep, so that they now lay next to their mirror image, some leaving the camp while they also stayed. So this was not the camp when he left, but when the troopers left… why?

Kylo kept walking, deeper into the camp until he got to Hux’s tent. Inside, the General was in a deep sleep - but the hair at the back of Kylo’s neck stood up, as if something was very wrong. He turned to see the last of the troopers turn a corner and vanish from view, while the remaining ones were close by. They only felt miles away. Kylo turned back to Hux and as he wondered where the Hux from earlier was, he watched himself get into the tent and lie down next to the General. With a soft moan, the other man responded, moving closer to the Kylo, who wrapped his arms around him protectively. 

Kylo took a slow, deep breath. This hadn’t happened. But…

He wished it had.  
He wished it could have.  
He saw Hux’s blue-green eyes open, and…

That moment.  
That split second before.  
Kylo’s eyes and Hux’s eyes met, and a flicker of something, some kind of understanding, some kind of respect, before the bite.

The raven-haired swerved, held onto a tent pole. He knew the type of poison, he knew it would last, he knew there was no antidote. 

Nights spent next to each other.  
Heart palpitations.  
Dizziness.

Kylo bit his lip and started walking towards Hux. Lowering himself down beside Hux, merging with this dream-like, ghost-like, much braver version of Kylo… Hux’s eyes closed, reality converged, Kylo wrapped his arms around the ginger-haired. As the real Hux woke, he startled, but Kylo’s voice soothed him visibly.

“Don’t be afraid. I feel it, too…”  
“Is this… still a dream?”

Kylo gently pressed his lips against the nape of Hux’s neck before answering, eliciting a soft moan.  
“No dream. This is finally real…”

**Author's Note:**

> For the KyluxXOXO SummerFest 2019 event. Prompt #1 "Camp"  
Words used: Bite, Dark, Sleep.  
But I ended up having using a few more O:)
> 
> First of all, let me apologise, this fic is not written very well. I've been really struggling to return to writing, and when I finally got the chance, I grabbed it. This is probably going to need to get fixed up a bit, when I can.  
Also, I didn't rate the fic. This is because I don't really feel like my fics feel right with any rating other than Explicit, but sometimes the content turns out to be 100% SFW, and Explicit then feels like a false promise. This one here is probably at least 98% SFW.


End file.
